Why I’m starting Fil-Am Features
As a Filipina American growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland, my culture was a big part of my upbringing. I’ve always loved and felt connected to being Filipino: My mom making adobo or sinigang for dinner, or tortang talong for breakfast. Filipino masses every third Sunday followed by parties complete with buffets of food, raffles and line dancing. Being surrounded by loving family friends and visiting my family in California every year. And growing up with a sense of pride and understanding about how hard my mom, aunts and uncles, and grandparents worked to immigrate to America and thrive.
When I first became interested in journalism, it was because I loved to write and had a knack for some of the skills that are well-suited to this field — like attention to detail and a tendency to ask a lot of questions. But over the years, as I studied and grew to understand the power of the press, I developed a deep passion for the importance of journalism in every aspect of society. News coverage in all areas, whether politics, crime or entertainment, informs readers of the world around them. It helps people do the research to form their own opinions. And perhaps most importantly, it tells stories. Storytelling allows journalists to lift up the voices in underrepresented communities — not only helping people in those communities feel validated, but also educating the people around them.
Being a mixed Filipina who is also Jewish, I’ve enjoyed working for Jewish publications both in college and professionally. I’ve loved being able to tell those stories in my own community, especially because our shared culture allows me to forge a connection with the people and the material. It’s humbling to shine the light on hard-working people and unique points of view. Bringing new perspectives to readers is also important to me.
For a long time, I thought about what it would be like to do the same for the Filipino community. Though the same is true about many minority groups in the U.S., I hardly find stories about Filipinos in larger news publications like The Washington Post or The New York Times. And when I do see these articles, they often cover news of the Philippines, or the U.S.’s diplomatic relations with the Philippines. That’s not to say there isn’t valuable coverage. I’ve recently read some important and informative investigative pieces of journalism, like this piece about the underground baby trade in the Philippines from Zora. But I don’t feel that the Filipino-American community is often represented in the mix.
So that’s why I’m starting Fil-Am Features, an online-only publication, which I will run in my spare time. I want to create a publication that will tell the stories and lift up the voices of Filipinos in our community. Doing this work is important to me, no matter how slowly it gets accomplished. As a (so far) one-person team working in scant hours, I don’t have the resources of a larger publication, but I will have the connection to the stories that I hope will make the work worth reading. And just like I’ve had wonderful experiences, I’ve also had difficult times due to my heritage. So I understand how powerful it is to have similar experiences represented — hearing or reading other people’s stories and voices helps validate one’s own.
I am looking forward to serving the Filipino-American community in the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area — as well as anyone who stumbles across this publication — with my work. I welcome any ideas or feedback, which you can email to filamfeatures@gmail.com, or by leaving comments on any of the stories on Medium. I’m also open to story pitches from writers interested in contributing.
Thank you,
Jacqueline B. Hyman
Editor/Writer, Fil-Am Features
P.S. Special thanks to my friends and family who have advised me and supported me in getting this publication running, and to Cassie Le for doing a wonderful job designing the Fil-Am Features logos.
